The invention relates to an assembly for feeding fluid to equipment.
The invention relates more particularly to an assembly for feeding fluid to equipment, in particular for feeding ink, which assembly includes a feed bottom base provided with a filling orifice communicating with at least one feed duct for feeding fluid to the equipment, the assembly being of the type in which the fluid is packaged in a top container provided with a feed opening which is organized to be connected to the filling opening of the feed base via a fitting that is pre-mounted on the container, and of the type including first axial locking means for mounting the fitting on the container and second axial locking means for mounting the fitting on the base, mounting the fitting on the base comprising moving the fitting in translation along a vertical mounting axis, then pivoting the fitting about the mounting axis.
The invention is described herein with reference to printing machines, in which the fluid is therefore an ink. But other applications can be considered, such as to the food industry, the chemicals industry, or analysis laboratories.
When an industrial printing machine uses ink packaged in bottles, it is advantageous to use the bottles directly as ink reservoirs on the machine, without it being necessary to use an intermediate receptacle such as a reservoir or a cartridge mounted on the printing machine. This makes it possible, in particular, to avoid superfluous handling operations and to avoid transferring the ink, which can be difficult to achieve, when filling a reservoir.
Document EP-A-0 808 716 has already proposed such an assembly for feeding ink to a printing machine. That document describes in particular an ink bottle provided with a threaded neck onto which a connecting cap is screwed. The connecting cap is provided with a thread that enables it to be screwed into the tapped hole in a feed base carried by the printing machine.
Generally, a printing machine uses a plurality of ink bottles of identical structures but each containing a different color of ink. The machine operates in a manner such that each base receives a bottle containing a determined color of ink.
With the assembly described in that document, no provision is made to prevent, for example, a bottle containing yellow ink from being mounted on the base organized to feed blue ink to the machine. Such a mounting error causes the machine to malfunction since the print patterns are then printed in the wrong colors.
Such a mounting error then requires the machine to be stopped to enable the feed circuits for feeding ink to the machine to be cleaned, thereby rendering the machine unavailable for a long period, and causing an increase in machine operating costs.
Document U.S. Pat. No. 5,920,333 discloses an assembly which makes it possible to match a bottle of ink of determined color uniquely with the filling orifice of a corresponding reservoir of a printing machine. That document proposes to provide the neck of the bottle with a ring carrying vertical tabs that are organized to be received in complementary axial channels provided in the outside axial wall of a filling orifice of the reservoir.
That type of assembly is not organized to mount the bottle on the base by means of a fitting, and it requires the bottle as equipped with its ring to be aligned accurately relative to the channels.
Document U.S. Pat. No. 6,164,768 proposes an assembly in which the bottle is equipped with a specific cap provided with mating means enabling it to be mounted using bayonet-type fastening in the feed base of the printing machine.
That assembly is complex and it does not solve the problem of matching each ink bottle of a determined color with a determined base.